Designers & Books Blog

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Architecture

The Tip of an Iceberg: Stanley Tigerman’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter January 10, 2012

Architect Stanley Tigerman: Tigerman McCurry Architects (Chicago)
Profile Book List
Stanley Tigerman—recently the subject of a retrospective at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery honoring his long and varied career as architect, iconoclastic theorist, and educator—freely admits that he became an architect because of a book. It’s a book whose individualistic main character has elicited a wide range of reactions since its first publication in 1943 (and in the past year was included on four other Designers & Books lists): Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead. More...

Notable Design Books: Reviews

90—Not 100—Notable Design Books of 2011

By Steve Kroeter December 22, 2011

Our list of Notable Design Books of 2011 didn't quite reach 100 titles, but we did make it to 90. Our newest participants—those helping us to celebrate the year in design book publishing—include Stanley Abercrombie, John Hill, Debbie Millman, Erik Spiekermann, and Tiana Vasiljev. They join Justin Davidson, Wendy Goodman, Julie Lasky, Paul Makovsky, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, and Alissa Walker. More...

Book List of the Week

Fun and Playful and Joyful: Jonathan Adler’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter December 20, 2011

Product and interior designer Jonathan Adler: Jonathan Adler Enterprises (New York)
Book List

Designers & Books is always intrigued by designers’ manifestos. Not only do they offer a window onto a designer’s work, but they also often provide insights into the choices included on the designer’s book list. Those familiar with Jonathan Adler’s work—products and accessories for the home, interior design, and international retailing—will recognize right away the ideas stated in his manifesto. What does he believe about color? “We believe that colors can’t clash.” Is he more in the camp of “less is more” or “less is a bore”? “We believe minimalism is a bummer.” What does he believe is the feeling that residential interior design should conjure up? “We believe that your home should make you happy.” More...

Architecture

Exploring, Through Design, the Big Ideas and Issues of Our Time: Susan S. Szenasy

By Steve Kroeter December 13, 2011

Editor Susan S. Szenasy: Metropolis (New York)
Book List Essay

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of the magazine Metropolis, whose mission is to “examine contemporary life through design.” At the helm for the past 25 years has been editor in chief Susan S. Szenasy. Her role in the design world as it has evolved since 1981 prompted Designers & Books to ask Susan for her thoughts on the most notable design books published during the magazine’s three decades—as a sort of capsule summary of the important ideas dominating design from the late 20th century into the early 21st. Susan came back to us with a slightly different idea. More...

Notable books and book reviews

17 Notable Design Books of 2011: Justin Davidson and Wendy Goodman

By Steve Kroeter December 7, 2011

Architecture critic Justin Davidson: New York Magazine (New York)
Notable Books of 2011 Video

Design editor Wendy Goodman: New York Magazine (New York)
Notable Books of 2011 Video

New York Magazine’s architecture critic, Justin Davidson, and design editor, Wendy Goodman, got together recently at Rizzoli Bookstore on 57th Street in New York to talk about their favorite design books of 2011.
More...

Interviews

Turning Off Reality and Letting Yourself Imagine: Jeanne Gang’s Book List—Interview by Paul Goldberger

By Steve Kroeter December 6, 2011

What happens when a Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic meets up with a MacArthur Fellow architect and the topic of their conversation is books? Shortly before it was announced that Jeanne Gang had been named by the MacArthur Foundation as a recipient of one of its 2011 awards, she and Paul Goldberger had a conversation about the book list that Gang submitted to Designers & Books. More...

Notable Design Books: Reviews

63 Notable Design Books of 2011

By Steve Kroeter November 30, 2011

To help celebrate the year in design book publishing, Designers & Books invited a group of esteemed design community members to select titles published in 2011 that they think are particularly worth noting. Among those who have participated so far in selecting titles were Justin Davidson, Wendy Goodman, Julie Lasky, Paul Makovsky, Daijiro Mizuno, Phil Patton, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, and Alissa Walker. Below you will find the results of their deliberations: our list (to date and growing) of Notable Design Books of 2011. More...

Architecture

In the Cube: James Biber’s Book List—Interview by Michael Bierut

By Steve Kroeter November 29, 2011

Architect James Biber: Biber Architects (New York)
Book List Video

Graphic designer Michael Bierut: Pentagram (New York)
Profile

Graphic designer and Pentagram partner Michael Bierut and one-time aspiring biologist turned architect James Biber have been friends, business associates, or both for over 20 years. They also share a major interest in books. Between the two of them they cover just about all the important ways that books can intersect your life: reading them, writing them, designing them, collecting them, being inspired by them—and in one case, fighting over them with a parent. More...

Book List of the Week

Much More Than the Sum of Their Parts: Bob Gill’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter November 22, 2011

Graphic designer Bob Gill (New York)
Book List

On a recent late Friday afternoon, Designers & Books visited Bob Gill in his studio on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Gill, a founder of Pentagram's forerunner—Fletcher/Forbes/Gill—was seated in an Eames lounge chair next to a floor-to-ceiling wall of books. Scattered about were all the tools of the graphic design trade—of both the analog and digital variety: a Mac and trays of pencils and markers, a scanner as well as straightedges. The conversation with Gill covered his favorite books, the fact that he is not an avid reader, and comments about the many books he’s written, including his latest—Bob Gill, so far. More...

Book List of the Week

Everything You Can Imagine: Karim Rashid’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter November 15, 2011

Product and interior designer Karim Rashid: KARIM Rashid Inc. (New York)
Book list

Prolific is a word that is frequently used to describe the designer Karim Rashid, and it’s easy to see why. His practice areas include home and office furnishings, personal accessories, furniture, lighting, interior design, packaging, fashion, graphics, exhibition design, identity programs, and various art media. Over 3,000 of his designs have been put into production for those on his client roster—a list that numbers more than 200, operating in over 35 countries on five continents. His Garbo waste can for the home accessories company Umbra has sold more than 7 million units. He has won more than 300 awards. Fourteen museums have his work in their permanent collections. More...

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

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Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

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